1. Field of the Invention
The following relates to a software build system, software build method, and computer-readable storage medium for providing added actions in the form of rules to the build system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Software build systems automate the production of complex software systems. Some software build systems are rule based in which rules are used to abstract away command-line instructions to perform actions by the build system. Rules are typically described in a build file. Although software build systems can be constructed to accommodate a general developer community, particular developers or development teams often desire to use additional tools to be run alongside default tools on the same rule. Conventional rule-based build systems have a fixed mapping between the rule and the actions that will be run. Conventional rule-based build systems do not support additional actions.
A possible solution to enable developers or development teams to add actions to a rule-based build system may be to modify the build system by hard coding a new action performed by an additional tool. It may also be possible to somehow trick the build system to execute a script that will run both the original tool and the additional tool. However, hard coding revisions to the build system can require extensive effort and time. The effort and time may not be practical when only a small group of developers require the additional tool. In the case of tricking the build system, there may not actually be a reliable way of tricking the build system for most actions. Also, there may be performance and scalability issues.